It wouldn¡¯t be a Park Chan-wook film with a simple, straightforward
plot, would it?

In Bat, or its English title Thirst, Song Kang-ho (The Good The Bad The
Weird, Secret Sunshine, The Host) re-teams with one of Korea¡¯s foremost
directors, Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), as a
vampire.

After five months of shooting both abroad (Australia) and at home in
Korea, the movie has just wrapped, and director Park is feeling good
about it: ¡°I had the feeling that of all the movies I¡¯ve done, this
might turn out to be the best.¡± Lead actor Song said, "As an actor, it
was a formidable adventure and difficult filming experience. I¡¯m happy
to be able to do a movie like this."

Song plays a respected priest who turns into a vampire after receiving a
blood transfusion, which he¡¯d undergone as a volunteer to test out a
secretly developed experimental vaccine. As if that weren¡¯t bad enough,
following his transformation, the devoted priest falls in love with his
friend¡¯s wife. Wrong on so many levels, eh, (I remember thinking the
description a bit bland when it was first released, but I¡¯d figured more
quirks would become apparent as more info became available, and so it
has.)

Due to Park¡¯s international recognition, the film has attracted
investors in Universal Pictures and Focus Features for North American
distribution. It co-stars Kim Ok-bin (Over the Rainbow) and aims for
release in the first half of 2009.